FAKE 
MOON
LANDING
 

Conspirarcy Theories

On July 20th, 1969, NASA achieved the impossible: landing on the moon first (“Apollo 11 Mission). Yet decades later, in the 21st century, many conspiracy theorists doubted the NASA moon landing (The Guardian News & Media). Three conspiracy theories became prevalent in the discussion of the truth of the moon landing. The first two theories involved why certain elements of the moon’s shadows and wind conditions were distorted, while the last involved NASA itself. These theories were entirely based on misinformation, assumptions, and a lack of scientific evidence (Royal Museums Greenwich). 

The first theory focused on the night sky; the astronauts filmed themselves in the night sky. Why are there no stars in the sky on the moon? (Constantine). The sky was engulfed in pitch blackness with no stars in sight. This was due to the camera's shutter speed (1/250 of a second) (Royal Museums Greenwich). The space photographer Mark Constantine explains, “this speed was necessary to avoid overexposure of the brightness of the lunar surface, and the moon did not have an atmosphere” (Constantine). The sunlight had no filtration and became the dominant source of light in the Apollo photos by Neil Armstrong (Constantine). Because of this, NASA chose this camera at this set speed to prioritize capturing the landscape and not the sky, and debunks the theory entirely.

The second major theory was highly debated because of how the flag was presented: “The Apollo 11 US flag is waving in the wind… but there’s no wind on the Moon” (Royal Museums Greenwich). In the famous photo, “Buzz Aldrin salutes the US flag during the Apollo 11 Moon landing”, the flag is seen with wrinkles and seems to be blown by the wind (NASA). This was mainly due to it being a still photo, not a video. The flag has been “screwed up for four days en route to the Moon” and “a telescopic pole has been extended along the top in order to make the flag fly proudly (Royal Museums Greenrich). Since the flag was taken as a picture instead of a video, NASA could not show the stillness of the flag on the moon in the vacuum of space. With this misinterpretation, the conspiracy theory was formed because of the skepticism of the moon landing, and has been proven false. 

The third theory, the most talked about, became the most prominent conspiracy theory of the three. “If we went to the Moon in 1969, why have we never been back?” Conspiracy theorists questioned the 50-year gap since the last moon landing as evidence that the moon landing was faked (National Air and Space Museum). After the last human was sent to the moon in 1972, NASA deleted Apollo 18 and 19 to save money for other projects. As the National Air and Space Museum explains, “The Vietnam War became the main priority of the US and cut NASA’s budget in 1967,” which led to poverty, urban problems, and environmental crises, making the space program less of a priority.  (National Air and Space Museum). All these factors prohibited NASA from creating another rocket ship to the moon. With the lower budget being less of a priority by the Congress and government, NASA has never returned to the moon since 1972. This conspiracy theory has been debunked, and NASA could not return due to geopolitical reasons. 

With the numerous amounts of theories surrounding NASA’s moon landing, the three most talked about are the absence of stars in the photos, the flag being blown by the wind in outer space, and NASA not returning to the moon. These three theories all fall under scrutiny. The pitch black sky in the moon landing photo isn’t present because the camera was optimized to capture the moon’s surface. The US flag was simply wrinkled from being screwed inside the telescopic pole and is taken as a still photo, not a video. NASA never returned back because the government’s priority shifted towards the economic state of America. The reality is that these theories all stemmed from misinformation, assumptions, and a lack of scientific evidence to disprove the moon landing.